Friday, October 21, 2011

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Molly Wizenberg has degrees in biology, French and cultural anthropology, but several years ago she left academia to become a freelance food writer and creator of the enormously popular blog, Orangette. She was raised in a family of food lovers and she learned to cook because "the kitchen was where things happened." Her intended career path changed after a period of introspection that followed the unsettling death of her father. A friend suggested she write a food blog as an outlet for her intense interest in food and in 2004 Orangette was born. Orangette's audience grew steadily and in 2009 it was named the world's top food blog by the Times of London. For a time she was also a columnist for Bon Appetit magazine and her memoir, A Homemade Life, was on the New York Times bestseller list. She and her husband, whom she met through a correspondence that began on her blog, operate a restaurant, called Delancey, in Seattle. She holds position 20 on the Gourmet Live list of Women Game Changers in food. I've chosen her recipe for French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon to share with you today. This is the recipe that inspired her husband to introduce himself to her. It is simple, delicious and quite easy to prepare. I like to use Meyer lemons for the cake and glaze. Here's her recipe.

Gâteau au Citron - French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Molly Wizenberg "This type of cake is an old classic in France, the sort of humble treat that a grandmother would make. Traditionally, the ingredients are measured in a yogurt jar, a small glass cylinder that holds about 125 ml. Because most American yogurts don't come in such smart packaging, you'll want to know that 1 jar equals about 1/2 cup."

Directions1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.2) In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into a buttered 9-inch round cake pan (after buttering, I sometimes line the bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and then I butter that too).3) Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.4) Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely.5) When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.Serve.

Variations: This type of yogurt-based cake is a terrific base for many improvisations. For a basic yogurt cake, simply leave out the lemon zest, and do not use the lemon juice glaze. For an almond version, try replacing 1 jar of flour with 1 jar of finely ground almonds. You can also play with adding various fruits (if frozen, do NOT thaw before adding) or nuts, if you like. When I add fruit, I generally pour half the cake batter into the prepared pan, top it with a layer of fruit, and then pour in the other half of the batter, sometimes adding more fruit on the very top.

The following bloggers are also featuring the recipes of Molly Wizenberg today. I hope you'll visit all of them. They are great cooks who have wonderful blogs.

Next week we will highlight the career and recipes of Ree Drummond. It will be really interesting to see what everyone comes up with. If you'd like to join us please email me for additional information no later than Monday, October 24th.

That's such an interesting story!This looks like the sort of cake that would be perfect with tea on a chilly Sunday afternoon. I don't know Meyer lemons, but will look more closely in the grocery store.

Great Mary, and thank you for letting me know about Orangette :-). And guess what, in New Zealand all the lemons are Mayers (or at least, all the lemons that people have in gardens) and so this is perfect!!

Mary, This looks absolutely devine and I am anxious to make it. I do love anything with Lemon. The recipe says 1 jar plain yogurt, would that mean an 8-ounce container? I am assuming so. I have seen smaller containers but not sure of weight, it may be a 4-ounce container?

A beautiful cake and I love French yogurt cakes! And this lemony version looks divine. Sigh, Meyer lemons are unknown on the prairie unless you grow them yourself and I do have a tree but this year it only produced one -- I may sacrifice it for this cake!

Thanks so much Mary, that does help. If I hadn't asked I would have probably assumed the 8-ounce but after looking at the pic of the cake again a 1/2 cup does make more sense for a one layer cake. Sometimes it takes me a while to work through these things in my head??? I appreciate your post.

what a great intro to Molly! a friend from France shared her recipe with me and she also uses the jar of yogurt to measure most of the ingredients, the only extra ingredient my friend added was a bit of rum. When I made it I called it french croatian lemon yogurt cake, it's so good, it's become one of my favorites.

Just made this this morning and it is delicious! The 1/2 c. conversion for the jar works out just fine. I made my glaze a little thicker, I'm not that big of a fan of it being soaked into the cake. Very lemon-y and very tasty :D

"Jar" is not a normal term of measurement! As I noted above, just below the photograph, the traditional way of making this cake calls for the ingredients to be measured in little glass yogurt jars. (In France, that's how many yogurts are packaged.) For our purposes in the States (or in other places where yogurt doesn't come in cute little jars), know that 1 jar equals about 1/2 cup. So 3 jars of flour is 1 1/2 cups.

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